Thing 40: Going Retro

I created an account on Retroland and began exploring its version of the wayback machine called "The Retropedia." Browsable by topic or you can search by keyword, Retroland gives you many avenues for exploration. You can browse by TV, Movies, Toys, Music, Fashion, Arcade Games, Food, Places, and School Daze. I guess what surprised me most was how much junk food was popular in every era! No wonder we keep dentists in business. The other thing that surprised me was that many people enjoyed the same things at school, with field trips topping the list.

Things that I was reminded of that brought back a smile were The Muppet Show, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, The Empire Strikes Back, The Princess Bride, trips to the beach with my grandparents and playing games like canasta, UNO and Monopoly, PB&J sandwiches, popcorn, and Coke Classic-when it was still made with sugar instead of high-frutose corn syrup. I would make my granddad laugh when I repeated the commercial slogan, "Ahh, Now that's the real thing!" We would keep it in the car on the way to the beach because it would keep me from getting motion sickness. I also enjoyed browsing the Book Worm forum and seeing how many entries were posted for favorite comic books and Dr. Seuss.

Retroland certainly made it easy to navigate popular culture by decade. This will be a useful supplement for students who have been assigned a particular decade and need to find out what was popular during that time.